Vehicles and Mass Combat
Vehicles are very large and difficult things to bring into combat. Vehicles reach the scales of armies when brought to bear against an opposing force. As such, vehicles don't interact with the usual rules of combat, but instead use the Mass Combat system. Crews Crews are a special type of army used to operate a ship, and fight when that ship enters battle. Crews and their gear take up a certain amount of tonnage on a ship, determined by their size. A diminutive crew weighs 2.5 tons, and this is doubled for every size larger (tiny crews weigh 5 tons, small: 10, medium: 20, large: 40, huge: 80, gargantuan: 160, and colossal: 320). A crew needs a ship to function. Not just any army can operate a ship in combat though, so increase the BP cost of recruitment by 2 when recruiting a crew. When vehicles are used as a major part of mass combat, they are likely to be damaged or destroyed. Damage that is applied to a crew is equally applied to the ship the crew is using. First, determine the total maximum number of hit points that the ship possesses and divide this by the crew’s maximum hit points (do not round) to determine the scaling factor. Whenever the crew takes damage from an opposing army, multiply that damage by the scaling factor and apply that amount of damage as evenly as possible the the ship’s locations. If an army is defeated, the ship they are utilizing is destroyed, and vice versa. A crew can make repairs to their ship while they recover while still considered resting. A crew’s commander is almost universally the captain of the ship, but this isn’t always the case. Crews utilizing an airship or other flying vessel gain the following army resource: Air Superiority: The army is equipped with airships or other flying vessels. It gain the Flight special ability. Increase Consumption by 4. Crews will often benefit from Siege Engines and Ranged Weapons. Just as with any army, crews can be combined, reformed, or split. Combining two crews will leave one of their two ships crewless, and requires the ship that they end up on be large enough to accommodate the larger army. Splitting a crew requires a second ship capable of accommodating one of the two new armies. A crew can be engaged in other activities while not in combat. This is handled by placing the army in reserve. The individuals within the army can then be used as Teams (see the downtime system). To split an army up into different teams, the teams must be initially decided upon when first recruiting the army with all associated costs of these Teams paid at the time of recruitment (a standing army that’s also skilled at other activities is more costly than hiring an army on its own). Finally, an army can be converted to a crew by paying 4 BP and 1 month to train them with a vehicle. A crew can be converted to a normal army by paying 2 BP and 1 month to train on land. Once this training is complete, the army or crew can be retrained by simply spending 1 week to get them accustomed to ship or land based combat. Battlefield Conditions 'When it comes to engaging in actual combat, a crew may gain certain benefits depending on the type of vehicle it operates. The following are additional considerations for battlefield conditions. '''Advantageous Terrain A crew will generally have advantageous terrain if their vehicle uses a movement type that the other armies do not possess. For instance, if a sea ship attacks another army from the water, the land based army may be at a disadvantage. Or if an airship bombards another army in a field, the crew within the airship have an advantage. When it comes to two armies having the same movement capabilities, certain strategies may warrant advantageous terrain, such as by flying an airship in another’s shadow. '''Ambush An airship can obtain concealment by flying high and hiding in the sun before attacking.' Wind Wind can affect an airship beyond hampering ranged attacks. If wind is present during a battle, the pilot of an airship must make a profession (sailor) (or other relevant pilot check) against the normal check or blown away DCs. If an airship is blown away, they cannot take any actions. If it is merely checked, then they do not get to act during the tactics phase. '' Category:Rules